European Textile Services Association (ETSA), which released its 13th update to members since lockdown had started in March, hopes to see some form of summer recovery. The association continues to lobby with the government for hospitality status for hospitality sector laundries though it is yet to get any formal response as yet. Its survey done in June highlighted revenues in the region’s industrial services workwear as well as in the health sector have declined sharpely while revenues in the hospitality sector plummeted by 80 per cent in April.

According to the association, the region would require over 18 months to recover from this. It is resorting to furlough of personnel to avoid layoffs as much as possible throughout the sector. The association is also cutting back on its investments even as cancelled orders on new equipment, products and services are having a cascading negative effect on suppliers

The Cabinet Office and NHSI of the ETSA have been leading the work on manufacturing and procuring reusable gowns for healthcare use. However, after several weeks in to the process, they have come to the conclusion that the individual health trusts and care homes should procure gowns locally depending on the exact requirements. However, the Government departments are keen to ensure that they recommend right specifications as firmly as they can.

Meanwhile, NHS England has also confirmed they will be ordering centrally for NHS acute care hospitals. They are proposing to fix RFID tags on these gowns to enable the creation of a national open protocol pool stock. They have also confirmed that the gowns are going to be a permanent addition to the product range and will be included within future framework agreements.